Scoring Each Season of Friendship is Magic (Season 8)

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

We now finally reach the end (for now) on our poll of Friendship is Magic with Season 8.

Edited March 25, 2019 by TheAnimationFanatic

[FirePuppy 621]

This season was totally awful. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both did almost nothing, like no interactions with the Student Six unlike every other main character (Non-Compete Clause and A Matter of Principals for example), and too much Rainbow Dash and Spike episodes for a typical MLP season.

Edited January 4, 2019 by FirePuppy

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, FirePuppy said:

This season was totally awful. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both did almost nothing, like no interactions with the Student Six unlike every other main character (Non-Compete Clause and A Matter of Principals for example), and too much Rainbow Dash and Spike episodes for a typical MLP season.

Every party needs a pooper, I guess...

[FirePuppy 621]

1 minute ago, TheAnimationFana said:

Every party needs a pooper, I guess...

Still, I don't want to see Season 9 be exactly just like Season 8.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, FirePuppy said:

Still, I don't want to see Season 9 be exactly just like Season 8.

Well, a lot of people quite liked Season 8, so, take that for what you will.

I guess you can't please everyone.

[The Nth Doctor 652]

The highlights of the season were Starlight, Trixie, the Golden Gals, and the Kirin

Everything else was a roaring dumpster fire because who needs good characterization, consistency, and an interesting story when you can ruin beloved characters even more?

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, The Nth Doctor said:

The highlights of the season were Starlight, Trixie, the Golden Gals, and the Kirin

Everything else was a roaring dumpster fire because who needs good characterization, consistency, and an interesting story when you can ruin beloved characters even more?

Well, you can't please everyone. There's always got to be that one guy who rains on everyone else's parade... 

[The Nth Doctor 652]

Just now, TheAnimationFana said:

Well, you can't please everyone. There's always got to be that one guy who rains on everyone else's parade... 

I'm all for building characters up without tearing others down, and this Season had that every now and again

Surf and/or Turf, Parent Map, On The Road To Friendship, Sounds of Silence...

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, The Nth Doctor said:

I'm all for building characters up without tearing others down, and this Season had that every now and again

Surf and/or Turf, Parent Map, On The Road To Friendship, Sounds of Silence...

There's a lot more than that. I'd argue that MOST of the season was very solid. But, hey, I get it. You're a Season 1-2 purist.

[Sparklefan1234 161,657]

Season 8 brought me my favorite exchange in the entire series!

From "Friendship University":

 

Rarity: [squeals] Now, I've read enough Shadow Spade to know the key to going undercover is rehearsing your backstory. [clears threat, in affected voice] I'm "Plainity". and I love bland old normal stuff. No frills for me. [normal voice] Okay! Your turn. 

 

Twilight Sparkle: [groans] My name's Eyepatch. I have an eye patch.

 

 

Just reading this makes me laugh! 

[The Nth Doctor 652]

1 hour ago, TheAnimationFana said:

There's a lot more than that. I'd argue that MOST of the season was very solid. But, hey, I get it. You're a Season 1-2 purist.

1-4, actually, and then the show should've retired Twilight and let anyone else take the spotlight. Starlight tried, but they bungled the execution and didn't give her enough time to develop as Twilight 2.0 before they expected us to worship the ground she walked on, even though her abuse of magic kept endangering everyone around her.

Put all the Starlight episodes DURING Season 6 and then the pacing wouldn't feel so atrocious

[Thrond 3,257]

This season was alright; its batting average is still fairly inconsistent for me, but I liked more episodes than I didn't. In general, I think it does a lot of things very differently from prior seasons. The school gimmick ultimately provides way too many characters and storylines to juggle, but I appreciated the change of pace it provided. A lot of my least favourite episodes here just feel careless, but on the other hand, I found it a lot easier to appreciate episodes like "The Maud Couple" and "What Lies Beneath" that were well-written but not entirely to my tastes. Part of that is I think the show was finally willing to convey complex themes directly, and part of it is that I generally found this season funnier than seasons 5 or 7, which matters to me a lot more in this show than drama or good role models. I also felt like the worldbuilding was way more creative this year, compared to earlier seasons where it tended to be a bit derivative. On top of that, I feel like the interpretation of Starlight this season was both way more consistent and way more likeable than in past years, and I liked the new student characters even though their presence means the show arguably has as many as 17 main characters, which it's not really equipped to handle. I still felt like this season oversimplified big ideas and relied too much on bickering, but it's a lot less moralistic, and overall I feel it was a push in the right direction; I'm a lot happier with it in retrospect than I was while watching, but I more or less enjoyed this season. 

[ShootingStar159 2,155]

@Sparklefan1234

“I never learned to read!” Was my favorite. 

[imawesome 449]

My ranking of the seasons (out of 10):

7.) Seasons 4 and 6: 6/10. 

6.) Season 8: 7/10. 

5.) Season 1: 7.5/10. 

4.) Season 3: 8/10. 

3.) Season 2: 8.6/10.

2.) Season 7: 8.9/10.

1.) Season 5: 9.7/10. 

Average: 7.7125/10. 

Edited January 4, 2019 by imawesome

[RulesofRarity 489]

It was awful. In fact I'd say it was the worst season after the walking abomination that was Season 7. My general issues with the season lie in:

• The boring and borderline offensive "school of friendship" setup. Like seriously, the oh so civilized Equestrians set up a whole school to spread their values and beliefs onto the uncivilized creatures. I'm sick of this idea that Equestrian society is the Gold Standard which the other races should try to live up to, this a society in where one of co-monarchs tried to violently overthrow her sister, has produced a vicious cult leader who tricked people into giving up their talents because her childhood friend moved away, also produced an evil slave king. But yes, Equestrian society and it's flimsy moral compass is something that all the other nations should aspire to be like.

 

•  Twilight's characterization has been a mess for years now but it somehow, improbably got worse in this season. Yet again we see her handing out baseless accusations in Marks for Efforts against the CMC so that Starlight can look good, we see her open her stupid school and have it be a complete failure so Starlight can look good, we see her completely fooled by a child(everyone be fooled except them was ridiculous) so that the Student Six can look good. I'm rather sick of Twilight being made into a total idiot so that other characters can look good, it's insulting especially when it's done to force a contrived moral.  It's also incredibly annoying that Twilight's incompetence this season was only called out by a racist pony the audience clearly isn't supposed to agree with even though he makes incredibly valid points.

 

• Twilight isn't the only main character to suffer from some poor characterization this season, Pinkie Pie's worst qualities are on full display in Yakity Sax(her aggressive neediness and the Mane 5 rushing to accommodate her stupidity do not make for a fun episode). Starlight also displays some of her worst qualities in a Matter of Principals and On the Road to Friendship. Her violent confrontation with Discord and her inability to see what the problem was with selling her BEST FRIEND'S  wagon show that she has barely changed since she was "redeemed" back in Season 5 but with an awful teacher like Twilight, I'm not shocked. Celestia is reduced to an unfunny idiot in Horse Play and Twilight lies to her about an acting ability until she has no choice but to admit the truth, she's totally qualified to leading a school that teaches friendship values like honesty!

There's so much more than bothered me this season but it would take forever to list it all out, so I'll just stop here. I'll be honest in admitting that I'm somewhat glad this show is ending after S9 because I found S8 so woeful that I'm not even gonna bother rewatching it.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by RulesofRarity

[Megas 27,052]

"That said"

Remember these words, because I'm going to be using them a lot

This season is pretty much season 3 if it was actually long. In fact to me it's also like S3 in the belief that it'll be a very underappreciated season. There's a lot wrong with it, but I think it stems from good intentions, just boring execution. The Student Six aren't bad characters, but the writers did a poor job of getting me to care about them, Non Compete Clause feels like it was written to make them look good by making RD and AJ look really really stupid, but instead it just makes people, especially fans of those two, just hate the Student Six instead. I feel Smolder and especially Gallus are the only ones to have anything going for them, the rest aren't terrible characters(except for Sandbar who really sucks) but there's not much to them to make them really stand out other than quirks that just get tiring after a while. Cozy Glow is a pretty decent villain and a nice change to the tiring OP unicorn or literal demons we get. Neighsay is just a lame token racist villain who's afraid of other species but at least his change of heart makes sense.

The mane 6 themselves are pretty mixed but I don't think they're bad as some people make them out to be, the only times I'd really say they're an actual issue is in NCC and Yakity Sax. That said, while the idea of them being "Friendship Teachers" sounds interesting and would be a great to showcase their growth, almost anytime they're actually shown in their teacher roles, they're either terrible at their jobs(NCC), or just look like yelling nags(Marks For Effort), or a combination of the two(A Matter of Principals) the only time it actually felt like they were suited in their role was Hearth's Warming Club, where Twilight, RD and Spike actually feel like responsible teachers. Another Compliant I have is just the concept of a Friendship School just sounds really dumb and lame, and any time it's a major focus it just drags the episode down. I think The End In Friend(which I do actually happen to like) is one of the biggest offenders of this, where the friendship school is needlessly shoved into RD's and Rarity's personal time to the point where it's actively making both the episode and their friendship degrades, then once the episode actually decides to drop it from the episode and actually just focus on Rarity and RD working together the episode drastically improves. Also, season 8 just makes me never want to see Discord ever again after the shitshow that was A Matter of Principals(especially after Discordant Harmony really made me hopeful too).

That said I don't think most of the unpopular episodes are nearly as bad as people make them out to be, like I said earlier I actually do like The End In Friend despite it's issues, Spike has some good status quo changes(even though I don't think Father Knows Beast is very good at all), The Maud Couple is a really funny episode and I do think Pinkie's behavior is actually really believable here.and Yakity Sax, despite actually being a weak episode for the Pink One herself, is a great showcase for the rest of the mane 6. Also, much like S3 and S6, there's a fantastic streak of episodes from On The Road to Friendship to What Lies Beneath. One episode in particular, the Washouts, did what S6 failed to do twice, which is take one of the most hated episodes in the entire show, MMDW, take everything every one hated about it, and actually fix and improve on that episode's issues

I'd argue that the season could get by on it's second half alone, that said I still feel the first half is pretty decent, even though it's on the weaker side of things, there are some good diamonds in the rough, like Grannies Gone Wild, Surf and/or Turf, Horse Play, Break Up Breakdown and Molt Down.

It's not the perfect season, or even a great season, but I do enjoy it, warts and all. While it is a huge step down from the likes of S5 or S7, I don't regret watching it and I'll look back on it with fondness

Looking at all the seasons in retrospect, I'd probably align them along the lines of:
7>5>1>3>4>8>2>6

Yes, I do look at S8 with more fondness than S2

[Black Sabbath 2,484]

Worst season yet. Sure, it had a few decent episodes here and there but not enough to make up for everything it did wrong. 

 

7 hours ago, TheAnimationFana said:

Every party needs a pooper, I guess...

Did you mean to name this thread "praise season 8" or something? 

[Here No Longer 5,270]

I feel like a broken record here, but Season 8 had SERIOUS issues with consistently delivering. It ended up being mediocre, I think.

Episodes like "Non-Compete Clause" and the worst episode in the entire series ("Fake It 'Til You Make It") just mar this season with far too many episodes I hated and not enough of episodes like "Mean Six" and "Break-Up Break Down."

Edited January 5, 2019 by ~Dusky~

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

Those who follow me know how much I sing my praises for FIM's second-best season of the show. Let's go over a bit of what makes it such a grrrrrrreat season.

1. Cozy Glow is the show's best villain at this point. Everything Dubuc devised for her perfectly illustrated what appeared t'be a filly with no clear morale, only to further foreshadow her cruel, sinister personality. In Marks for Effort, she lied to Twilight by framing the CMCs. How were the Flim Flam brothers able to defraud and manipulate their students? Because she pirated Twilight's original curriculum. By tapping into the Young 6's reputations and stereotypical renditions of their kind, she successfully caused friction among them. No, she's not all-powerful physically, but like Sludge, she masks that with her brains, successfully using the Magic of Friendship to manipulate Twilight, the Young Six, Neighsay, and the Student Body and nearly wipe out all magic in Equestria as is. If everything went according to plan, Celestia, Luna, Cadanc, and Twilight might've been overthrown in a coup she led.
    
2. The dialogue is, for the most part, an outstanding improvement over last season. Shadow Play's smart script felt a lot like the start of S8 improving this key storytelling. You can read more about my praise for it here or below:

   Quote

   Season 8 is one of the show's best. Its dialogue is an important reason why. Conversation drives much of the season, especially its humor-centric episodes, so how well they write and edit lines determines the overall story quality. What they accomplish is an organic, emotive, and crisp flow of lines full of personality. Allspark plays the characters off against each other, incorporating plenty of snark, occasional teasing, starts, and stops. Four episode examples include:
   
   1. The Break Up Break Down: Spike's and Discord's opposing personalities create lots of organic banter between them.
   
   2. The Mean 6: Snarkle and Chrysalis share wonderful chemistry, with the former exploiting the latter's pride and need for help. Conversely, the ReMane Seven's anger at each other feels raw and real.
   
   3. Road to Friendship: Starlight & Trixie's banter. Nuff said.
   
   4. The Washouts: Dash's concern, Scoot's desire for inclusiveness, and Dust's cleverly woven manipulation spark intense conflict.
   
   Sharp dialogue helped Shadow Play stand atop FIM's tier. From that point forward, it's like Dubuc and Haber expanded upon it for S8, and it really shows in the final product of many episodes. Hopefully, Allspark pursues this strength in S9.

3. Starting with S7, FIM's episodic quality has become more and more consistent. When it's good, it's at least good with the chance of it becoming great. When it's bad, it's really rare. Ever since Fame & Misfortune, there hasn't been one atrocity; neither Fake It (S8's worst) nor NCC come close to the bottom ten. For this season especially, the good episodes are usually great. You can argue that Horse Play, Break Down, Surf, Mean Six, Road to Friendship, Washouts, or Sounds of Silence (among others) are S8's best very convincingly.
    
4. The new characters are, for the most part, great. Other than the collection of half-dimensional new-gen stereotypes from Make It, every single new character didn't stink. Th Young Six really stand out as some of FIM's greatest new edition of near-mane characters since Starlight's inclusion into the Mane Six following Re-Mark; all of them have their strengths, quirks, flaws, and struggles, and their friendship is very believable. HW Club and WLB really give them justice, along with patches of them in other works.
    
5. The songs as a whole are an improvement over the previous two. AHWT, Times, Perfect Pear, and Recreations have really good songs, but for the most part, they were left to b desired. Last season, aide from the very first one, the others were quite good. (Favorite's A Kirin Tale for its humor, pizzazz, and charm.)
    
6. It handles some difficult and mature subjects with proper delicateness and respect. Divorce, puberty, a balance between anger and freedom of expression, and especially suicide are all themes in respective episodes, and they're handled very well.

[Thrond 3,257]

For me, the way the mane six behaved within the school is relatively close to what I wanted, ignoring the relative quality of episodes for the moment. I think the issue is that having them struggle within the confines of being teachers would come too close to having them learn specifically adult things, which might not be as relatable to the target audience. Maybe that's why attempts to present them learning those things were relatively uncommon, and sort of awkward and extreme when they did happen. 

[heavens-champion 1,893]

On 1/4/2019 at 7:22 PM, RulesofRarity said:

It was awful. In fact I'd say it was the worst season after the walking abomination that was Season 7. My general issues with the season lie in:

• The boring and borderline offensive "school of friendship" setup. Like seriously, the oh so civilized Equestrians set up a whole school to spread their values and beliefs onto the uncivilized creatures. I'm sick of this idea that Equestrian society is the Gold Standard which the other races should try to live up to, this a society in where one of co-monarchs tried to violently overthrow her sister, has produced a vicious cult leader who tricked people into giving up their talents because her childhood friend moved away, also produced an evil slave king. But yes, Equestrian society and it's flimsy moral compass is something that all the other nations should aspire to be like.

 

•  Twilight's characterization has been a mess for years now but it somehow, improbably got worse in this season. Yet again we see her handing out baseless accusations in Marks for Efforts against the CMC so that Starlight can look good, we see her open her stupid school and have it be a complete failure so Starlight can look good, we see her completely fooled by a child(everyone be fooled except them was ridiculous) so that the Student Six can look good. I'm rather sick of Twilight being made into a total idiot so that other characters can look good, it's insulting especially when it's done to force a contrived moral.  It's also incredibly annoying that Twilight's incompetence this season was only called out by a racist pony the audience clearly isn't supposed to agree with even though he makes incredibly valid points.

 

• Twilight isn't the only main character to suffer from some poor characterization this season, Pinkie Pie's worst qualities are on full display in Yakity Sax(her aggressive neediness and the Mane 5 rushing to accommodate her stupidity do not make for a fun episode). Starlight also displays some of her worst qualities in a Matter of Principals and On the Road to Friendship. Her violent confrontation with Discord and her inability to see what the problem was with selling her BEST FRIEND'S  wagon show that she has barely changed since she was "redeemed" back in Season 5 but with an awful teacher like Twilight, I'm not shocked. Celestia is reduced to an unfunny idiot in Horse Play and Twilight lies to her about an acting ability until she has no choice but to admit the truth, she's totally qualified to leading a school that teaches friendship values like honesty!

There's so much more than bothered me this season but it would take forever to list it all out, so I'll just stop here. I'll be honest in admitting that I'm somewhat glad this show is ending after S9 because I found S8 so woeful that I'm not even gonna bother rewatching it.

 

 

 

 

And people think I took the show too seriously? I saw no imperialism in creating the School of Friendship.

[RulesofRarity 489]

8 hours ago, heavens-champion said:

And people think I took the show too seriously? I saw no imperialism in creating the School of Friendship.

I'm sure it's not what the writers intended but that's how it came across. Ponies are portrayed as the only civilized race in the show. I wouldn't hate it so much if they showed the ponies learning more from the other races.

[Thrond 3,257]

16 hours ago, heavens-champion said:

And people think I took the show too seriously? I saw no imperialism in creating the School of Friendship.

The issue is there - it's essentially ponies teaching non-ponies to follow their cultural values. But I think the fact that there's so many pony students there makes the implications much less severe. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

Completely forgot about one more key reason why S8's so awesome.

• Not just its consistency in episode quality's so good. Throughout the second half, there wasn't one bad episode, with only AMoP, Yakity, and FKB the most suspect. The first half was really good, but 7B stepped up its game massively, especially with this lineup: Road to Friendship, Washouts, Rockhoof, WLB, and Sounds. That five-episode stretch is FIM's greatest run, eclipsing the one beginning with Mane Thing and concluding with Shadow Play (with Secrets & Pies the lone outlier).

[heavens-champion 1,893]

16 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

The issue is there - it's essentially ponies teaching non-ponies to follow their cultural values.

Implying that friendship is solely a pony philosophy.

Edited January 7, 2019 by heavens-champion